Elon Musk sent waves across Twitter after pushing a wild conspiracy theory behind the break-in at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco, which left her husband, Paul Pelosi, hospitalized.
Fresh off finalizing his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, Musk responded Sunday to a tweet from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lambasted Republicans and their "mouthpieces" for spreading "deranged conspiracy theories."
Musk: 'More to This Story Than Meets the Eye'
In his post, Musk shared a link to an article about the break-in suspect, 42-year-old David DePape, who is facing charges of attempted murder, elder abuse, and burglary after allegedly attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
"There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," Musk said to Clinton, linking to the unverified story claiming that Paul Pelosi was intoxicated and had met the intruder at a gay bar earlier in the night before the attack took place early Friday morning.
The weekly outlet has published other conspiracy theories in the past, including that a body double for Clinton was sent to a debate with Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Twitter Reactions
Musk quickly deleted the tweet, but not before people had a chance to take screenshots. The tweet instantly went viral with many raising concerns about the future of Twitter as a platform.
"This exchange between Hillary Clinton and Elon Musk should kill any remaining confidence advertisers had in the platform," Fast Politics podcast host Molly Jong-Fast tweeted, with MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin adding, "Elon Musk is already spreading dangerous lies on the platform he owns."
Jimmy Kimmel, meanwhile, didn't mince words. "It has been interesting, over the years, to watch you blossom from the electric car guy into a fully-formed piece of sh-t," he tweeted.
Here are some of the other reactions:
I've diagnosed the problem. @ElonMusk is what academics call "digitally illiterate." Clinton posted a Los Angeles Times article, and Musk replied with *a post from a fake-news site* that's already down. Then he wrote "tiny possibility" as a hedge against spreading disinformation. pic.twitter.com/XuP13qV08b
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) October 30, 2022
Clinton: Conspiracy theories are getting people killed and we shouldn't amplify them.
— 🎃 🎃 BloodSugarSethMasket 🎃 🎃 (@smotus) October 30, 2022
Owner of Twitter: But have you considered this conspiracy theory? https://t.co/MLMevGH5Hq
Hillary shares an article from the highly respected LA Times. Elon Musk shares an article from the oft discredited, disinformation peddling Santa Monica Observer. There he is, folks. The paragon of free speech.
— Penny Blanco (@lessthanbatman) October 30, 2022
The outrage comes mere days after Musk tried to quell fears from advertisers by maintaining the social media platform would not become a "free-for-all-hellscape" under his ownership.
Since Musk took ownership of Twitter on Friday, there's been a surge in hate speech. He said on Friday that Twitter would be "forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints," and that "no major content decisions or account resinstatements will happen before that council convenes."
